Ha Tu Coal focuses on treating mud

In 2025, Ha Tu Coal Joint Stock Company - Vinacomin was assigned by TKV to mine 2.5 million tons of raw coal and excavate 44 million m³ ^. earth and rock. To complete this task, one of the most urgent matters for Ha Tu Coal Mine currently is to quickly process over 2 million cubic meters of rock and soil. To accomplish this, one of the most pressing issues for Ha Tu Coal Mine is to quickly process more than 2 million cubic meters ^. The mud at the bottom of the Bac Bang Danh open-pit mine is due to the impact of heavy rainstorms in 2024.

Ha Tu Coal Joint Stock Company - Vinacomin experienced numerous difficulties in 2024. Expansion of mining levels did not proceed as planned, the sequence of coal seam mobilization was altered, and a shortage of waste disposal areas affected production progress. From the third quarter of 2024, heavy and prolonged rains, especially the impact of Typhoon No. 3, devastated production levels, causing a significant increase in water and mud content in the mine pit. Statistics after Typhoon No. 3 show that the volume of mud accumulated at the bottom of the Bac Bang Danh mine pit of Ha Tu mine exceeded 2 million ^m³ . The concentration of manpower and equipment to pump out water and process this mud disrupted the mine's coal production schedule.

Mr. Tran Quoc Toan, Deputy Director of Ha Tu Coal Joint Stock Company - Vinacomin, said: Faced with these difficulties, with the close and decisive guidance of the Group, the Company launched a 90-day production emulation plan, setting specific goals and solutions to resolutely complete the assigned tasks. By the end of 2024, the Company had completed 2.35 million tons of coal mined, equivalent to 87% of the initial plan and 100% of the Group's adjusted plan.

A view of the mining site of Ha Tu Coal Joint Stock Company.

Recognizing that the tasks for 2025 will be more challenging as outstanding issues from 2024 remain unresolved, Ha Tu Coal Mine has accelerated the progress of all work stages. The most important immediate task is to take advantage of favorable weather conditions in the early months of the year, focusing machinery and equipment on dredging and completely clearing the remaining mine pit sludge from 2024.

In January 2025, the company completed dredging 650,000 ^m³. Mud. After the Lunar New Year holiday of the Year of the Snake, the units immediately resumed production on the 4th day of the Lunar New Year and maintained a vibrant spirit of labor competition in the following days.

According to Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, Head of Production Control Department of the Company, the process of treating the pit sludge is carried out sequentially from West to East to proceed with deep mining in the western area according to the mining plan and diagram. To ensure the completion of the pit sludge treatment before March 15, 2025, as committed to the Group, in addition to using self-made equipment, the Company is continuing to mobilize equipment from external partners to accelerate the progress of pit sludge treatment. On average, the Company deploys 40 trucks with a load capacity of over 90 tons, 28 trucks with a load capacity of under 90 tons, and 7 excavators operating simultaneously each day to serve the dredging and transportation of sludge from the bottom of the pit to the surface.

With maximum effort, the company has so far completed the dredging of nearly 2 million cubic meters ^. The mine is located at the bottom of the pit and coal is being extracted from the Bac Bang Danh pit. On average, the unit extracts 8,500 tons of coal per day.

It is expected that by March 15, 2025, Ha Tu Coal Mine will have dredged and transported over 2.3 million cubic meters of sludge from the bottom of the Bac Bang Danh open-pit mine.

Besides dredging and transporting mine sludge, Ha Tu Coal Mine also implements projects to prevent and mitigate storm damage, especially drainage systems. Accordingly, the company has implemented the construction of 28 projects serving drainage and storm prevention in 2025 as planned. At the same time, the unit has also implemented the construction of gravity-fed drainage systems around the Bac Bang Danh mining area. For the surface drainage system outside the mining area, the unit is dredging settling ponds inside and outside the mining area, reinforcing and dredging drainage ditches, strengthening the drainage system at waste dumps in the Via Tru seam; and improving the working layer lines to direct water to the company's surface drainage systems.

With the surface water catchment area under the gravity drainage belts, the company has developed a forced drainage plan with 3 options based on the specific surface and groundwater flow into the pit. The largest option will deploy 6 pumps with a capacity of 800-1,300 ^m³ /h at the bottom of the pit; a total of 14 pumping systems with a capacity of 600-1,300 ^m³ /h will be mobilized; and the number of pumping pipes will be 2,500m.

Drawing lessons from the storm and flood prevention efforts of 2024, Ha Tu Coal Company is demonstrating a proactive spirit, preparing the best possible response plans to natural disasters; ensuring safety for production areas and fulfilling the assigned production target of 2.5 million tons of raw coal in 2025.

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